The Long Walk has now reached a critical box office milestone. Despite its source material being one of the first novels that author Stephen King ever wrote, it took until this year for a movie adaptation of The Long Walk to be released in theaters. The movie is directed by Francis Lawrence, who previously worked on The Hunger Games series.

Quality-wise, it seems like The Long Walk is worth the wait, as the movie is getting great reviews. The film has a Certified Fresh 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an almost as high 85% from audiences. This includes a 7 out of 10-star review for The Long Walk from ScreenRant‘s Todd Gilchrist, who praised the lead actors.

Now, The Long Walk‘s latest box office numbers have received an important update. The Long Walk has officially crossed the $25 million milestone at the worldwide box office. This is made up of $22.7 million domestically and $2.8 million from overseas markets thus far.

What This Means For The Long Walk

Looking at the raw numbers alone, one might think that The Long Walk is a disappointment. After all, its budget is estimated to be around $20 million. Needing about 2.5x that budget to make its money back, The Long Walk would need about $50 million, and it is still far off from that.

However, The Long Walk has done pretty well with international presales. With some of these numbers not factored into the current box office, the King-based film could end up pulling much higher numbers once these ticket sales are accounted for, as it releases into more global markets.

This recovery is critical for The Long Walk and for the reputation of King adaptations more broadly. It has been a very high-quality year for these adaptations, but that has not equated to box office success. The Life of Chuck, for example, got strong reviews but only grossed $17.2 million during its theatrical run.

If The Long Walk ends up shining internationally, it can pick up some of The Life of Chuck‘s slack. On a different note, a King adaptation did have success earlier in the year, with The Monkey. The Long Walk could join its ranks if it has a good staying power both domestically and abroad.

Our Take On The Long Walk’s Box Office Milestone

Even with it not being a complete failure, I’m a bit baffled as to why The Long Walk is not doing better in theaters. The original book is not nearly as classic as something like The Shining or Carrie, but the same can be said about The Monkey, which did do well.

Just because it did not have a knockout domestic opening, however, does not mean that The Long Walk cannot have a good long-term appeal. The movie still could be a huge success on digital and/or streaming, even after it leaves theaters.